Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Not meant to offend Christians BUT IT DOES!

It is not meant to offend but it does, but it does deeply.Brighton's Jubilee Library is selling sweets that are clearly aimed at ridiculing and mocking the Saviour, not only that but also trivialising the believes of thousand of the inhabitants of its citizens. Brighton Jubilee Library is of course paid for by local Council Tax Payers like me and you. We are paying to be insulted!

Here's that Jesus fella again – and this time he's spreading minty freshness into the mouths of the masses.

He can’t feed the 5,000 with this cute little tin of peppermints, but you’ll feel a whole lot better after your hearty banquet of fish and loaves!

By the same token if you google" "Brighton Messiah Mints" you get the story of the library refusing to advertise to advertise a children's workshop held at a local Church, in the interests of "fairness" of course.

You could also contact any or all of the city's councilors by clicking here. I contacted all of them, possibly they will comment here. Councillor David Smith is responsible for libraries: david.smith@brighton-hove.gov.uk

I have emailed the person you have detailed in your post Fr Ray. I suspect she'll have a rather full 'in-box' very shortly - bearing in mind how popular your great blog is and how deeply offensive this Mint Sweeties nonsense is, as it clearly mocks Our Blessed Lord!

Hopefully they'll see sense and discontinue this line forthwith if not fifthwith perhaps even as of immediate effect!.

Anyone know who manufactures the sweets and/or commissioned the tin-can design? Worth finding out and giving them a 'bit of an ear bashing'.

Just a thought - I bet the library would have second thoughts about selling mints in a Prophet Mohammed box!

'How dare you sell a product, which is intentionally aimed at ridiculing the Son of God, you just stated that you do not promote a particular religious view point. Please remove these mints from your shelves and put up a poster with a public apology to all those you have offended'.

Well, that's part of what I wrote, the rest I will leave them to chew over.

Thank you Father for bringing this to our attention. Long live the blogs.

Fr, slightly off-topic from the mints: I did follow your link, which has another link to The Argus regarding the poster story, and there seems to be some doubt about its veracity, as one commenter on the story claims to have been there and gives a different version. Obviously I have no way of telling which one is true (particularly as the commenter is clearly anti-religious), or if they even refer to the same event, but thought I should point it out in case you hadn't seen it:

'This story is complete fabrication for starters. This was not about a poster, the deluded woman was handing out leaflets to kids, so basically recruiting for the jesus army. She had no right to do this, especially to impressionable young children - you wouldnt allow a parlimentary candidate or paedophile to do it would you??

I know this for fact as I was in the library on the same day. She was not told that she could not put a poster up in the library, she was merely advised where to put it and that she needed permission to hand out leaflets....

Clearly this woman just wanted to complain about anything and the Argus should be ashamed to print such rubbish with out solid facts.'

These mints and their packaging are very offensive to the name of Jesus Christ,my Saviour.I see that your own surname means 'son of the bear'. Are you proud of your surname? Is it your parent's surname?.Are you proud of your father's name? Would you be offended if someone were to use it mockingly to sell something? I expect the Father of Jesus may feel this way,right now.If you have any power,stop this.It may be the most honourable task you ever accomplish.

Jesus Christ died in agony for you,and me.His existence is more historically provable than Caesar's.His Name should not be used in this way.Would the library make some mints with the name of the Prophet Mohammed(peace be upon him) on the tin? If not,why not? Please answer that question Sally McMahon.(sorry to use your name again)Brighton libraries have acted before to stop offense.Do so again.Stand up and be counted,and you will be among the counted.

Done. I got an autoreply saying "thank you" for the letter and they will assign it to a staff memember. Believe me, they wouldn't have said "thank you" if someone had read it. :-D

The squeaky wheel usually gets the grease.

[Toads on this side of the pond try and pull that crap here too. But that's a lot of nerve on the one hand proclaiming to be "fair" about NOT advertising an event held at a church group, but then to turn around and do this shows the lie. You can bet they wouldn't have offended the Mohammedans, for fear of THEM burning down the library. But they know Christians are "too nice."]

I have seen some pictures of them on http://marymagdalen.blogspot.com/I'm a little bit surprised by this.

I'd consider myself a liberal person with a wide range of tolerancefor all creeds and beliefs, and I am hugely in favour of freedom ofexpression and speech, however I would like to exercise my right offreedom of speech to register my distaste for this product with you.It may not be immediately apparent to you why this product isoffensive to me, and I think it would trivialise to make comparisonsto contrast with the care that goes into avoiding offending advocatesof the prophet Mohamed, however I can assure you that this isoffensive. I would strongly ask you to reconsider if a public libraryis an appropriate venue to promote something which shamelessly usesthe image of Our Lord merely to sell a "personal hygiene" product. Itutterly debases and corrupts the saviours message of love with a cheapand tacky "kiss-me-quick seaside hat" style jokey-ness.

I have great faith that libraries are a place that are there topromote understanding,tolerance and ultimately respect for one anotherthrough education and knowledge. I cannot see how selling this productcan achieve this. It appears to me to be something more suited to theend of the pier than a place of learning. In fact I doubt that the endof the pier would wish to insult and offend as grossly as thisperverse creation offends me.

Thank you for your correspondence on this issue. I am sorry if you have been offended by the Messiah Mints’. I can assure you that the mints are no longer for sale in the library shop.

A lot of things have been said in the press about the issue over the poster which distort the facts, so I would like to let you know what actually happened.

Some weeks ago, a member of Jubilee Library staff found a woman handing out leaflets to parents and other children in the children’s library. This was being done without prior permission being sought from the Library Manager, and so the woman was asked to stop. We have real concerns for the safety of children using our library, so do not allow anyone unknown to us to approach children in this way on our premises.

Contrary to the report in the media, we did not refuse to accept the religious poster. The staff member offered to (and did) put the poster into the Parents Information folder so that parents looking for local information about local activities would see it, which is what we do with all leaflets and posters that we are given. We do not have the space to display very much in our libraries, so do not put up any posters other than mainly library and council posters, and other public service notices. The poster policy was explained to the woman, and she appeared satisfied and left.

The poster policy makes it clear that we give priority to Library and Council information on our notice boards, and then to other public services (such as health and education) or government information. We rarely have space in any library for anything more than these. We encourage community groups and other organisations to put an entry on the Community Information database, which is widely used by local people, and we will put one copy of a poster or leaflet in the Community Information file in the local library.

Whilst we are unable to display posters from many organisations, including local church groups, we do make their information available to the public through our Community Information files available in every library. Libraries also have books and other materials available for information and for loan on wide-ranging and diverse viewpoints, religious, political and philosophical, as this is clearly part of our role.

I hope that this has clarified the situation for you. Please do not hesitate to contact me again if you have any further concerns.

If you are unhappy with my reply to your correspondence, you should write to us stating why you are not happy with the reply you have received and what you would like the council to do to put things right. The address to write to is Brighton and Hove City Council Standards and Complaints Team FREEPOST SEA2560 BRIGHTON BN1 1ZW or by email to complaints@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Fr Ray, it seems to me that Brighton is a bit of a cesspit these days. I haven't emailed Brighton & Hove Library Services yet as I'm still fuming. If I jump in now I may say something which would harm our cause.

They have been withdrawn but no-one has explained why they were put on sale.Brighton has so many PC policies in place, but they seem to exclude, deliberately one suspects from these incidents, Christians.

I sent the email below to her last night and this morning received the same reply as her Dear Blogger, 8:52 am comment.

Ms McMahon

Ref: http://marymagdalen.blogspot.com/

If the report on the above blog is true, in the interest of "fairness" would it be too much for us to expect a sale of Brighton mints with Mohammed on the tin cover, or would you be too afraid of the reaction from members of the religion of peace?

Why not ask them if in the interests of equity they also market Mohammed Mints, Buddha Bon-bons, and Sikh sweets? Of course in none of these cases would they have any intention of offending, so it would be OK.

I got the identical response you did to Dear Blogger, but at least the mints have been removed.

Dear Elizabeth

Religious posters and ‘Messiah Mints’

Thank you for your correspondence on this issue. I am sorry if you have been offended by the Messiah Mints’. I can assure you that the mints are no longer for sale in the library shop.

A lot of things have been said in the press about the issue over the poster which distort the facts, so I would like to let you know what actually happened.

Some weeks ago, a member of Jubilee Library staff found a woman handing out leaflets to parents and other children in the children’s library. This was being done without prior permission being sought from the Library Manager, and so the woman was asked to stop. We have real concerns for the safety of children using our library, so do not allow anyone unknown to us to approach children in this way on our premises.

Contrary to the report in the media, we did not refuse to accept the religious poster. The staff member offered to (and did) put the poster into the Parents Information folder so that parents looking for local information about local activities would see it, which is what we do with all leaflets and posters that we are given. We do not have the space to display very much in our libraries, so do not put up any posters other than mainly library and council posters, and other public service notices. The poster policy was explained to the woman, and she appeared satisfied and left.

The poster policy makes it clear that we give priority to Library and Council information on our notice boards, and then to other public services (such as health and education) or government information. We rarely have space in any library for anything more than these. We encourage community groups and other organisations to put an entry on the Community Information database, which is widely used by local people, and we will put one copy of a poster or leaflet in the Community Information file in the local library.

Whilst we are unable to display posters from many organisations, including local church groups, we do make their information available to the public through our Community Information files available in every library. Libraries also have books and other materials available for information and for loan on wide-ranging and diverse viewpoints, religious, political and philosophical, as this is clearly part of our role.

I hope that this has clarified the situation for you. Please do not hesitate to contact me again if you have any further concerns.

If you are unhappy with my reply to your correspondence, you should write to us stating why you are not happy with the reply you have received and what you would like the council to do to put things right. The address to write to is Brighton and Hove City Council Standards and Complaints Team FREEPOST SEA2560 BRIGHTON BN1 1ZW or by email to complaints@brighton-hove.gov.uk

I've been involved in this story from the start. As soon as I read it I left a comment on the Argus website which focussed on the Council's Equalities and Inclusion Policy, to show it was hypocritical. I also said the mints belonged in a joke shop not the library.

That didn't matter to a mainly atheist audience taking over the site with their comments, mocking me for being Christian and others for thinking the library was wrong. They've sold out of those ghastly mints now!

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna

Pray for Francis our Pope, and for the Church of God

My Parish's Website

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